The Road of 'Trode: Cyberspace

EVENT: Black Sun Hijack

2012-08-31T15:57:42Z

Posted by: trodemods

21st Jenery, something happens that never has before: the Black Sun crashes. Anyone who's in the netbar sees the bar freeze, the inhabitants start to jitter and snow out to grey, and then their connection fails and they wake up in their net couch. People in the physical bar see the entire bar environment fade to black, and then the power goes out, forcing them all out onto the street. The bar is uninhabitable for several hours.

At this time, every single PC who has or will experience their canon memories find themselves pulled into the Black Sun netbar.

It is the exact environment of the Black Sun, except entirely empty. The decor today is sleek and modern, minimalist stools and curved benches, a bar so black that it absorbs all visible light, looks like it's not even there. But the interior is malfunctioning, glitching -- sometimes the lights flicker and change color, sometimes the benches change and writhe like snakes.

The Black Sun is made of several rooms; you might have appeared in any one of them.

As for your avatar: you have two options. One, exactly as you appeared in your memory flashback -- or two: exactly as you appear in 'Trode. Either way, it will be rendered in exquisite detail.

All exit protocols have failed. You can't walk out the doors, you can't trigger a reboot, you can't hop to another site. You can't even disengage your own implants from the net. Hope you peed before you jacked in, cause you're sure not going now.

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forums / vr ; open ; backdated to 17 jenery

2012-08-30T06:27:51Z

Posted by: disbenefits

[ The deaths are getting noticed. Finally. It's only taken years. By a rag, but noticed nevertheless. Mal feels grimly satisfied. Things should speed up from now. ]

[ She has odd minutes in between conducting her business, and in those minutes she jacks in to units across the Twin City's crustiest underbelly, where she's currently spending her time. All of her accounts are proxies, though by no means untraceable ones; still, if they're traced, they'll be traced to scattered locations. She spends a little time sassing law enforcement, because she can, and then sets up a text-only chat entitled twin city serial murders. ]

anyone else have a theory? don't be shy now

-

[ By the evening she's tired and a little bit bored, so she takes half an hour in a more secluded place to wander around VR. Her avatar is even more generic than usual - pale and dark-haired with features that swam with pixels in an almost comical fashion, the better to hide her with - and she opens up a room again. It's just called bored. ]

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VR Space; Open

2012-08-21T02:42:21Z

Posted by: girl_friday

[There is no explanation for it. Not for the dreams, not for the way she's felt herself drawn to people. Simply walking down the street, on her way to work, she'll want to walk up to a stranger. It's the same draw she felt toward Tony, toward the man she recognized as Loki, even though lately, it hasn't been anyone whose face she's recognized from the--

Well, whatever it was, she hasn't figured it out yet.

It's a theory, and she feels like it's a logical one. Rather than ask around and brace herself for strange looks, Virginia is sitting in a perfectly open, perfectly legal VR space. Her avatar looks exactly like herself, though dressed in a way Virginia would never dress in the Capitol. She wears a dress she remembers from the experience, one of Pepper's dresses. Navy blue, tailored, knee length and sleeveless. Pearls are around her neck and her hair is drawn back.

With the room set up, Virginia sits and she waits.

She doesn't even know what she's waiting for.]

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[NPC] Video broadcast/interview

2012-08-20T22:20:37Z

Posted by: trodemods

[ Ticker scrolls past:

THIS IS A SCHEDULED INTERVIEW SPACE. PLEASE WAIT UNTIL 0900. THIS IS A SCHEDULED INTERVIEW SPACE. PLEASE WAIT UNTIL 0900. BROADCAST WILL PROGRESS IN 20 MINUTES WITH COMMANDER IN CHIEF KELLY DEAN. VIEW BIO. THIS IS A SCHEDULED INTERVIEW SPACE...

Eventually, the screen clears. It's split, one half a reporter, and the other half a sweet-looking redhead in military uniform. She is on the deck of a warship, movement of soldiers behind her.

Reporter in italics. Kelly regular. ]

Commander Dean. Do you read?

I do. You're coming through very clearly.

Good, good. Well, Commander, it's wonderful to have you.

Thank you. I'm always happy to give a bit of time to Citizen Call.

For those of you who don't know, this is Commander Kelly Dean, head of the Department of Armed Forces, including police, militia and navy. She's kind of a big deal.

[ Kelly laughs. ]

Well, Kelly, we have our screening program up and running. How this is going to work is that citizens hopefully are looking to ask you a few questions. They'll be screened through our facility for relevance and for profanity, and what we feel are the best questions will be transmitted through to you.

That is how I understand it.

All right. Well, here we go.

[ Citizen Call's randomness program is malfunctioning. Any PC who attempts to get through will, no matter what their questions are. ]

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jack_me_in @ 2012-08-20T00:01:00

2012-08-20T05:23:57Z

Posted by: heuristicconclusions

Who: HAL, anyone else.
What: A bored nine year old who is fluent in binary decides to see how good his new hacking skills are.
When: Jenery 15th
Notes:Basically Harrison is attempting to punch a hole in any secure files/chatrooms/servers he can find. You decide if he gets into your conversations, but at the very least he'll be tripping up whatever security alarms you might have. As he's burrowing through the network unconventionally, this also has the possibility to throw random people together, or cause strange glitches in people's connections. Be creative with it. Oh also he's zooming through cyberspace as a giant red eyeball lens thing, no body to speak of.

( Is an 'ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US' joke tacky, or retro? )

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Newspaper - 15 Jenery

2012-08-19T19:40:06Z

Posted by: trodemods

Citizen Call - All the News That's Fit to Stream

[[OOC counterpart post]]

TWIN CITY STOCKPILE DISCOVERED
Weapons seized for violating Capitol-Twin trade agreements.

Late last night a weapons cache was discovered in the Twin City. The Capitol Police Force, following up on reports of human trafficking, uncovered a supply of fission and energy weapons, including nearly two dozen military grade frequency disruptors making use of extremely advanced repeater technology. ( story continued... )

BLACK SKIES CAUSE MASS PANIC
Mysterious power outage currently being investigated by independent committee.

A system malfunction in Axis caused huge power drain two days ago that has just now been fixed. The Pyramids were dark the entire time, prompting worry about food production and the distribution of currently available resources. ( story continued... )

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS MAKING WAVES IN SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
Two students stumble upon breakthrough that could create jobs for hundreds and increase Nautilus food production.

A new design from the aquatic engineering department of Capitol University may increase the production capability of the Nautilus station twofold. When Harris Grein and Kleo Mason began their graduate studies project searching for a hypothetical way to increase efficiency of Nautilus fishing boats two years ago, they never could have dreamed just how remarkably successful they would be. ( story continued... )

DEATHS IN THE TWIN CITY'S UNDERBELLY
Cult, crazy, or conspiracy?

Sources continue to report strange deaths in the slums of the Twin City. Though these deaths have mostly been confined to young people, especially young men, one source tells us that children as young as ten have suddenly succumbed to a mysterious wasting sickness and died within hours of initial illness. ( story continued... )

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Direct VR Feed/glitch - Jenery 13

2012-07-26T22:51:32Z

Posted by: fathomsbeloww

You’re going about your business on the network, maybe chatting with a friend, maybe looking up something you couldn’t quite remember – when all of a sudden, you get caught in an eddy of spinstream. There’s no smooth polish or chunky ineptitude of programming – it’s the raw, jerky sensory download of someone’s immediate experience, rigged to record on all senses, catching your mind in real time. It’s almost like being hijacked again, but you remember who you are. You don’t know who this is happening to, or how he feels, or why the hell he’s strapped down, viewing the world through barely slitted eyes, as something stings lightly at the back of his neck.

“Weaver be fucked, the saltlick brat’s been recording.”

( Shenanigans ensue. Warnings for violence. )

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A Slice of the Landscape; Open [Jenery 12]

2012-07-23T08:00:19Z

Posted by: clawandscars

[It’s one of the many refugees citizens make in their spare times, places that become their homes on the Net. Escapism at its best. Different landscapes punctuate it, a desert, a forest, and bits of a city all arbitrarily dotting the horizon.

The first impression, at least to any experienced hacker, is that this was made by an amateur, someone who had only the average knowledge that anybody could possess of how to manipulate cyberspace around them. Each section is clearly defined, the sandy desert stopping in a line that could be drawn with a ruler, with apartments straight out of Twin City beside it in a perfect circle. To the eyes, everything is clunky and pixellated, with the colors all solid and one-note.

Upon closer examination, there’s certain details one begins to notice. The sensory load has been adjusted and fine-tuned to a much higher degree than the visual. One can actually hear the wind rustling through the individual leaves of the trees and feel the blistering heat of the sands beneath their feet. Scents, too, are heavily incorporated, with even the sewage of the City smelling unfortunately accurate. Tsume’s always focused more on the little details of his life than the big picture and his own personal hideaway is his to do with as he wishes.

Right now, he’s at the far edge, debating the creation of a new section. He’s cursing himself inwardly for even thinking of this. But there’s no snow yet in his eclectic landscape and right now, all he can think about is feeling flakes beneath his ~~paws~~ feet. He really wishes he had a better reason than a vivid hallucination to work off of. Oh well. A glowing red square appears over his right eye and dances around his fingertips as he begins to go to work.]

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[ VR GAME ; OPEN ] JENERY 9

2012-07-17T22:31:43Z

Posted by: heartnoglow

[ Sometimes, Tony jacks into a game called Call of Warfare 4 with the 4 being in ridiculously large font and slanted. His registered username is STARK and his blue-eyed avatar, a replica of himself otherwise, is always decked out in the latest gear. In fact, STARK is a bit infamous for hacking and programming his own weapons and items. Research and field-testing, he calls it.

Developed by Erist Fort and sanctioned by the Capitol, Call of Warfare 4, if single-player, is the story of a one-man campaign against some evil terrorists across multiple maps based on locations in the Ark and completely imagined ones. If played as a multiplayer in cyberspace, then it's pretty much a free-for-all shooter.

Tony uses it when he has several ideas at once to test weapon capabilities in a simulated field because all data is good data. With the latest success of the Naval plasma cannon (really, it's a statement to not screw with the Capitol), his mind is a bit buzzing with advancements and technologies.

So he jacks in, complete VR submersion.

He fights one-on-one, in teams, against teams. Across maps of the Capitol, Twin City, some desert, a blizzard-torn landscape (called Snowbound, and is usually vetoed by the players, since few people enjoy the map; it's hard to move around in), and a generic half-destroyed village. The simulations are impressive if not overwhelming.

Your choice. JOIN?
y/n ]

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a little R&R, 'Trode style

2012-07-16T08:26:47Z

Posted by: tenuefarfalla

WHO: Cho and you, if you're up for a game
WHAT: hopefully meeting new people
WHEN: Jenery 8 - Jenery 10-ish?

NOTES:
What are we dealing with here? A game played in fully immersed VR, putting equal emphasis on planning, agility, coordination, and speed. The game can be played as any combination of layers. You can engage in planning and speed, which is just two people sitting at a table with the game between them. You can engage in agility and coordination, which just sort of drops you in an obstacle course type room with a couple of laser guns and lets you go at it.

You can experience all layers at once. For that, try to imagine if chess and synchronized swimming and laser tag had a baby. All right, when you can get that image out of your mind, come play it. ^_^

Also, let me know in the subject line or somewhere in your tag what layers you want to play and whether or not you want your character to be one she's played with before.
WARNINGS: none

[Cho liked games. She liked having a connection to another person for a little while in a safe and mostly anonymous way. An old reliable avatar today, a build up on a standard model, the sort of thing teenagers in the Capitol favoured. She had a female Caucasian body, tall and thin with light blue hair fixed in two coiled brands near the nape of her neck. Her outfit was the same pastel shade, shorts and a crop top with dark blue boots and arm cuffs. It was an avatar you spent twenty five credits on from any random low grade hack in the social chats. But Cho used it to play.

Today she sat in the initial room, playing with a simple memory game arrayed in front of her as a rotating cube full of points of coloured light. The bright green starburst hovering over her head conveyed her willingness to accept any partner, whether she already knew them or not, and the shape said she was happy to play any combination of available layers at once.]

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Text (ish?) - Wizipedia entries - leaving a breadcrumb trail

2012-07-12T00:01:55Z

Posted by: blots

[ That's one identity he's spent, with this Wizipedia nonsense. It's been hours of writing up data on this "wetware virus" that causes hallucinations of alternate lives, of editing it into existing entries, of unrolling the moderation that dismissed his claims as unproven, unsubstantiated. And still he's kept at it, until his identity was suspended from wizi editing.

No one's taken the bait yet. No one's tried to contact the sock identity, screenname medditk, which has very clear contact information posted on the profile.

Perhaps he was too subtle.

Time send up another flag.

After a moment of thought, he opens up a new account, names it wyrmer and types up another article. The title: ]

The Avenger Initiative

[ ooc: Loki was in fact the one in the newspaper doing some on-the-sly encyclopedia editing. This is a post for following up on that! Or, if you like, following up on the second article.

Contact can be made through the first sock identity or the second, by text and then possibly a voice/video/VR connection. People searching streamspace for mentions of viruses that cause hallucinations of second lives or for the Avengers will probably be able to find the rolled-back Wizi entries that Loki put in. ]

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VR BROADCAST: ARKHIVERSARY

2012-07-06T15:23:27Z

Posted by: trodemods

[ The Capitol would be remiss if it let a chance to broadcast propaganda to the masses just slip away. And, as such, the entire Arkhiversary festival is available to experience in VR. Sponsored by the Black Sun netbar, which pretty much just means that when your connection glitches, you get treated to the Black Sun logo as a wait page.

Cameras, microphones and olfactors broadcast data constantly compiled into a near-complete sensory experience, in a fully 3D unfortunately non-interactive simulation of the Capitol center. Wander around, smell the smells, taste the few stalls worth of taste-scanned food, listen to the music.

The simulation isn't without flaws. The volume of transmitted information is huge, and sometimes the data comes in spurts, like nauseating bursts of smell, or jerky video.

So jack yourself in, wander around, hang out with friends, interact with other avatars in the virtual space.

If you're an elite enough programmer (or can hire one to create your avatar), you might even be granted admittance into Black Sun's exclusive party, rendered in full, allowing interaction between flesh-and-blood and avatar via implants and wireless, with the meatspace attendants partially jacked-in and experiencing the virtual via visual overlay. ]

ooc: Make threads, tag around, and remember: 1, when your character experiences their initial 'arrival experience' is up to you; and 2, strange coincidences will draw your characters into the same space.

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